


savior

by miserynovel



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Gen, Spoilers, aka i've been thinking a lot about kray and his extremely messed up mindset, canon-typical war crimes and violence mentioned nongraphically, meant to take place between kray doing the thing and galo doing the drill thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-11-28 21:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20973584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miserynovel/pseuds/miserynovel
Summary: Kray won’t burn, even here, surrounded by death and the ashes of all he touches.Before the end is fully here, Lio and Kray talk.





	savior

Galo, as if carried on a wave, crests over the mountain of debris and disappears. Lio can feel the flame he left with him burning, still, but it feels fainter and fainter. 

“You monster,” he hisses, squeezing his eyes shut. He’s done what he can - the rest is out of his hands. Galo may well die anyway, when the Parnassus takes off despite Lio’s efforts and the Earth explodes in a plume of fire. It doesn’t really matter if he hits the ground or not. 

But Lio would rather he not hit the ground. Even trapped in Kray’s flames, malevolent and burning - he’d forgotten what  _ burning _ felt like until now, that horrible helpless breathless anguish melting like acid through his lungs - the reality has yet to set in. The burnish are screaming, dying, Galo is hurtling towards the ground, and the Earth will be doomed. Kray has won. There’s nothing left Lio can do. 

“No, a savior!” Kray cries. His wings unfurl, and he plunges down, Lio in tow. “The savior of mankind!”

Lio wants to cry. He can’t - not now, not ever, not when the fate of the burnish rests on his shoulders, not now, when he and the burnish and everyone else is doomed. 

“I know you don’t think the burnish are people worth saving. But the people you’re leaving behind, they’re people too, aren’t they? Are you their savior?”

Kray laughs that horrible, unpleasant, unhinged laugh. “Of course. Mankind will populate the stars in their name. I’m doing this for them, even if they won’t live to see it. Such a shame. There was no other way. None of you understand - not you, not Dr. Heris, not that eyesore - this is the only way. Don’t be so selfish to think your survival is necessary for mankind’s salvation.”

He could say the same to Kray. But the part of it he can’t get out of his head is Galo - Galo, who looked at Kray with those wide eyes. Even as Kray reaffirmed time and time again the monster he was, Galo was freshly betrayed. 

Lio remembers the way Galo had looked at him in the cave. When Lio had realized that he wasn’t willingly aiding the crimes against the burnish. He had been used, too. Used and discarded. 

“I don’t think a savior would kill someone who looked up to him. You could have just waited for him to die with the Earth, but you tried to kill him months before. What sort of savior would do that?”

Kray sneers. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I’m a leader too, you know. I have people look up to me, depend on me. Never in my life would I-to me, as a leader, I can’t let even one of my people die! And you, you…” 

He'd let Thyma die, he realizes. 

He takes a deep breath, trying to steady himself so his words come out clearly, because he wants Kray to hear what he’s saying. If he can’t change anything, he can at least say his piece, defiant until the last breath is torn from his body and the planet ruptures. 

“You have the technology to freeze the Earth’s core. You don’t have the technology to survive the trip. As a leader, the natural thing to do is to sacrifice yourself for the future of mankind. But you refuse. You’d rather destroy the Earth and start over than sacrifice yourself. Maybe it’s the leaving that’s more important to you to begin with. A new world where everyone will follow you unconditionally, without question. You don’t care about mankind. You just want power.”

The screams of the burnish grow louder as Kray prepares for his final descent. For a moment, his face is uncharacteristically stony, the euphoria fading as he considers Lio’s words. 

“They’re your people, too,” Lio continues. “The burnish, they’re  _ humans _ . Everyone you’ve killed, everyone that will die when the Earth is destroyed-”

“Mankind is not any one person, or any group of people. Mankind is mankind. As long as the last human remains among the stars, mankind lives.”

“You seem to intend on being that human, no matter the cost. None of what you’re doing is necessary. It’s all for your own sake. Stop pretending you care about humanity! At least admit all you want is power! You aren’t a leader, you’re just a monster, sacrificing countless lives for your own personal ambition!”

They land in the center of the Prometech Engine. Lio swears he can see Meis and Gueira, side-by-side in their pods as they always were on their bikes, miserable and limbs beginning to smoke. He can see the old man, one leg already gone up to the knee. Children, terrified and confused, and all of them  _ dying _ . He thinks of Thyma, dead before she could even see this. 

Kray smiles the most disgusting smile Lio has ever seen on a human face. 

“Can’t you hear them, Lio Fotia? Your people are dying. Your people will die. My people - no, mankind - will thrive on Omega Centauri, and it’s the blood of your kind that will get us there. You have no business telling me I’ve failed as a leader. Not here.”

The reflection of his burning wings casts a sickly-pale shadow across the floor, and lights dance in Lio’s eyes. The voices in his head - the promare - scream, louder than they ever have, but Kray won’t burn, even here, surrounded by death and the ashes of all he touches. 

**Author's Note:**

> Another short thing. Kray is such a fascinating character. I hate him so much. And sometimes I think about how Lio is on easily 13 layers of PTSD from this one scene alone. Alternate title: the virgin individualist Kray Foresight vs the chad actually good leader Lio Fotia. 
> 
> If you enjoy the writing style here, please consider checking out my original work - it would mean a lot to me! I'll definitely be writing more PROMARE, though - this movie is pretty much all I think about. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!!


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